Lake undecided on regional plan

Four months after the idea was first proposed, Lake County appears no closer to deciding whether it wants to share any new growth revenue from commercial developments, new business growth and other projects with its regional neighbors.

Lake would do so under a 16-county "Regional Prosperity Initiative," originally introduced by three Northeast Ohio mayors and first presented to the Lake County Mayors and City Managers Association in April. The plan aims to develop a collaborative regional economic development plan that pools the resources of local governments, much like Minnesota's "Twin Cities." The results could include new job growth, the establishment of specific areas designated for commercial, retail and industrial growth, as well as the minimization of infrastructure and energy consumption costs.

Before any of that happens, though, area officials have to sign on. After the April presentation, the Northeast Ohio MCMA said it hoped local governments would vote by Sept. 1 to proceed with the plan. In Lake County, that seemingly won't happen for a while.

"We have not voted on it," said Rita C. McMahon, Painesville's city manager, who also serves as the Lake County MCMA's president. "We have not really had any additional substantiative discussion (on the plan since the April presentation)."

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That Lake County and others aren't exactly ready to commit shouldn't be a problem. Hudson Mayor William A. Currin, another initiative organizer, said in a voicemail that the initiative would move a lot slower than stated in the spring. Communities will receive more presentations this fall, and their concerns and input will be taken into account.

"We (know) that there wasn't enough to present," Currin said. "We are feverishly working on those details."

A formal proposal might not arrive until early next year, Currin said.

That kind of talk isn't what leaders in other counties want to hear, such as Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, one the initiative's three organizers. To him, Northeast Ohio, which continues to fight for business, conventions and big-ticket attractions, is full of individual communities that compete against one another and are mostly concerned with their own tax bases and developments. He'd rather see all the involved communities benefit from the location of a business or industry within the region.

"This region faces a lot of challenges, not unlike other regions and other countries," Akers said, "but to the extent that mayors, city managers, township trustees, county commissioners and everyone in governmental positions are working together rather than competitively against one another, we can help turn this region around.

"If we can have a land-use planning approach that makes use of existing land and not have a lot of sprawl, we can have new growth where there are not winners and losers," he said. "In a pool, everybody wins. That makes sense."

McMahon said the lack of discussion in Lake County indicates the desire to learn more about the idea rather than utter disagreement.

"I think the premise and concept is a good one," she said. "There needs to be more regional cooperation and coordination, but I think there's some concerns about the size and scope of what they're looking at. ... We haven't seen a lot of details on how it's going to work."

On that front, Akers said the revenue sharing pool would have a "complicated formula," but could, for example, give Mentor 60 percent of the tax benefits of a company moving there from Euclid. The remaining 40 percent would go to the pool and be distributed to the other communities in the initiative.

"Or let's say a widget company wants to move to a green space, and they need new highways, sewers, etc.," Akers said. "What if we found out there was space somewhere where there is existing infrastructure, so we don't have to sprawl and can make use of existing infrastructure?

"That's what we're talking about."

McMahon said the initiative is a standing item on the Lake County MCMA's agenda, but wasn't certain whether it would be addressed in a meeting late next month. Either way, concerns remain about the initiative's ability to account for differences among the communities in the 16-county area.

"This is a very diverse region with different needs and different approaches (in each community," McMahon said. "To build consensuses among that area, I think, is going to be extremely difficult. In my view, it's kind of a mammoth undertaking."